Brett Favre and Peyton Manning finally have a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's the number 428. According to someone who did the calculating, John Madden has analyzed football for 428 consecutive games. That streak will end this weekend, with Madden staying on the West Coast to be with family while the NBC crew heads to Tampa Bay for the Seahawks and Bucs.
Madden will be replaced in the NBC Sunday night booth this Sunday night by Cris Collinsworth, arguably the best studio football analyst in television who normally serves as the co-host with Bob Costas for NBC's "Football Night in America" Sunday pre-game show. Collinsworth also has done game color for years and will be seamless fit working with play-by-play man Al Michaels. But it will only happen this week because of some extenuating circumstances.
The travel schedule for the Madden Cruiser would have been brutal, with a trip to Jacksonville 10 days ago, then to San Diego this past weekend and back to Florida for the Bucs home game this coming Sunday. Come to think of it, perhaps Seattle should stay back on the West Coast -- it would be best for the viewing public, anyway.
As for the future, NBC's Dick Ebersol confirmed to Madden that this wasn't a hint that he should retire, and he fully intends to see Madden finish up the remaining three+ years on his six year deal. Dick had been thinking about for a while, however.
Ebersol first thought about giving his man a blow when the NFL television schedule first came out last April.
According to Washington Post contributor Leonard Shapiro, Dick gave John a blow this past week.
You know what? We're just going to quit while we're ahead, though we really wanted to bring up Jason Whitten.
Crap that actually came from somebody's mouth
"You look at this football team, this football team is a complete football team. They can beat you any way they want. They can run it down your throat. Eli Manning can distribute it to multiple receivers. This is a great football team, and an aggressive football team and that's one of the things I like the most about this football team. Last week they go up 24-3 against the Seahawks, and they blitz four straight times on the defensive side of the football. This is a good football team. I think an underrated football team." - Mark Schlereth
Football team.
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"John Elway had an absolute -- let me use a baseball term -- HOSE. I mean, he could FLAT fling it, especially when he was a young player." - Schlereth
Sadly, as happens so often to men the world over, Elways' hose weakened and his balls wobbled as he got older.
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"And you can see, Derek Anderson is starting to feel it!" - Ron Jaworski
If anyone else uttered this quote, it wouldn't be in this section. But when Ron Jaworski says it, it makes us giggle.
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"I heard (San Diego) is still so angry they won't even allow zebras at the San Diego Zoo." - Al Michaels, on Chargers' fans relationship with referees
Al Michaels, everyone. Al Michaels.
TBS Unveils the Secret to Staying Young
If TBS's coverage of the MLB playoffs this fall has demonstrated one thing, it's that Dennis Eckersley has discovered the fountain of youth. Unfortunately for those looking to remain eternally young but also consider themselves style-conscious, the key ingredient to the fountain of youth is to have an aggressive mullet/mustache combination at all times.
Don't believe us? Let us unveil out visual presentation, using Eck as our primary test subject...
The 1970's
The 1980's
Late 80's/Early 90's
Late 90's
2008
Seriously, if we turned on the TV tomorrow and saw him sitting on the TBS set wearing an Oakland A's uniform, the thought that we might have walked into a time warp would at least cross our minds for a split second.
We always knew that mullets were magical.
Chris Berman is Obsessed with Holidays
Since Chris Berman is the self-appointed master of ceremonies for all things ... well, things, he always manages to integrate holidays into his broadcasts. Monday offered Boomer the chance to bring up Christopher Columbus, among other things.
"Happy Columbus Day and to our Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving."
Sure, there's nothing wrong with a welcome greeting, but does anyone out there honestly wish their fellow citizens "Happy Columbus Day"? Minor quibble by us, so we'll move on.
"Even if Cleveland sails the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria tonight, it's not going to work."
Forcing the names of Columbus' aqua-vehicles to fit in the context of football is a stretch even by Berman's standards. Unfortunately, he doesn't see it that way. In fact, he's really into this whole Christopher Columbus/football thing.
"Today of course we celebrate a visionary, perhaps the greatest road accomplishment in history. 1492 Christopher Columbus, in the ultimate road game, set sail for ... I DON'T KNOW, WHERE WAS HE GOING!? But by the time he was finished, he discovered America. Winning in front of a hostile crowd. Not easy. Fast forward to 2008, who better to take the field on Columbus Day than the Road Warriors of the NFL. The G-Men have won 11 straight in front of hostile crowds. Also not easy. What a long, strange and magical trip it's been."
Yep: Giants = Columbus.
Once again, Chris Berman reaffirms he's the annoying uncle who does "got your nose" jokes and finds quarters behind our ears. Join us again next year to relive this exercise all over again -- and happy Chris Columbus Week!
Sports and Media: Cross Promotion At It's Finest (cont'd)
Continuing sports' never ending quest to make more cash by integrating advertising into their product, we digested several things over the past seven days that we hadn't seen before. In no particular order, we saw:
1. During a re-broadcast of Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe II on ESPN Classic, the ESPN Bottom Line flashed breaking news incessantly that ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reported Evander Holyfield's likely return to the ring. Not a huge deal by any means, but the timing was more than coincidental.
2. NFL Network's Total Access reviewed NFL Films recently released "History of the Washington Redskins" DVD. It was the Hollwyood equivalent of Paramount Pictures airing a review of Braveheart or Titanic. As you could imagine, the reviews were 100% positive.
3. On Sunday, Fox's Kenny Albert couldn't wait to bring the next James Bond movie into the telecast of the Rams at Redskins. As soon as the camera hit, it was go time: "Kenny Albert along with Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa. One quick reminder, the new James Bond thriller Quantum of Solace heading to a theater near you on November 14th. The Washington Redskins have made a quantum leap since their Week 1 loss to the Giants, playing under a new head coach, Jim Zorn, the Skins have won four straight games."
Even more impressive? He was able to make a snappy line out of the Bond Shill.
4. Our final installment of "things we'd never seen before" occurred on NFL Network's broadcast of Steve Mariucci and Terrell Davis sitting down with the Geico Caveman. Truthfully, the segment had a few good moments, with our favorite coming from the mouth of Geico Caveman:
"You guys got to think outside the box. That's why they brought me in here. They don't care about football. Jesus, do I have to write this on the Whiteboard?"
His honesty is necessary and quite refreshing.
Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line
God bless the small headline writers. They are the grinders who go to work each day and pump out the small text links that line the side of every major sports site. And despite the fact that they don't get the same accolades as the big headline writers, they still are able to continually produce Bobber-approved material.
From ESPN.com:
"Phils climb Stairs to 3-1 lead vs. Dodgers"
Click the link and guess who hit a key homerun for the Phillies? Matt Stairs. Even though he saw it coming, Bob still couldn't help but throw up a few thumbs.